


Rarely Pure and Never Simple

by magnetocent



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Truth Serum, lil bit of angst, little hint of Barry/Bruce, mention of sex pollen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-18
Updated: 2016-05-18
Packaged: 2018-06-09 06:40:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6894157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnetocent/pseuds/magnetocent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While on a League mission, Barry gets injected with a truth serum.</p><p>  <i>"You know what this means right?" Hal asks.</i></p><p>  <i>Barry sighs.</i></p><p>  <i>"Yeah.”</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Rarely Pure and Never Simple

**Author's Note:**

> This fic borrows elements from pre-52 and New 52 continuities (mostly because I wanted to work with New 52!Barry's romantic life, but I also want Martian Manhunter to be part of the League 'cause I love him).

Barry feels he can safely say he’s content with the powers he’s been given. 

Of course there are times he wishes he never got them at all, though he wouldn’t admit that out loud. The anxiety of it all – from all the secrecy and near death experiences – would be reason enough for anyone to rue the day they became a superhuman. But in his opinion, the increased metabolism almost makes up for it. 

He hasn’t been sick once since his accident, not even a cold. Food poisoning is never a real problem anymore. Not to mention he can eat whatever he wants and not worry about his weight. 

But most importantly, the effects of whatever serum or poisons he might be dosed with can wear off within minutes. 

This isn’t the first time he’s been dosed with something. He was hit with a mind-control serum made by Luthor during a fight with the Legion that lasted all of five minutes. The Trickster has poisoned him a few times, but all it ever does is slow him down for a few agonizing moments. 

He was even doused with an aphrodisiac by Poison Ivy while on a mission out in Gotham. That one lasted a bit longer than the rest, and what he did while on it is a secret he’ll take to the grave. He couldn’t look Batman in the eye for months after, not that it was really all that easy before anyway.

Luthor got him again today, but this time his mind control came in the form of a truth serum. And this time he made it extra-potent, probably to compensate for his last attempt. Fortunately for Barry, the fight didn’t last much longer after he was dosed, and he wasn’t able to reveal any _important_ secrets to Luthor. 

Just some humiliating personal ones.

He sighs, and feels blush forming on his cheeks from the memory. He reminds himself to be grateful that everything he told Luthor wasn’t enough to reveal his or the other Leaguers’ identities, or put them in danger. It doesn’t make him feel like less of an idiot, though. And the humiliation is enough to have him hiding out in the Watchtower medbay until the serum runs its course. 

J’onn tells him it should only last about another half hour with his metabolism, and Barry figures things could be worse. He decides on a self-imposed quarantine anyway, just for his own comfort, and to keep himself from anymore humiliation that can come from his current situation. 

J’onn is kind enough to run the tests without asking him too many questions, but it doesn’t keep Barry’s brain from opening his mouth and word-vomiting all over the poor Martian. J’onn, being J’onn, takes it all in stride and helpfully offers to use his telekinesis to hold Barry’s mouth shut for the rest of the tests. 

After they’re finished, J’onn takes his leave and offers to let the League know of his situation, and to keep their space. Barry agrees, thankful, and lets J’onn know in great detail how much he appreciates their friendship. J’onn just smiles and leaves him to his stew in his newly reformed embarrassment.

When the door closes, Barry let’s out a sigh, rubbing at is temples, and decides it might be best to try to sleep off the remainder of the serum. He’s barely able to climb onto one of the beds before the door swooshes open again, revealing the _last_ person he wants to see right now.

"Bar!” Hal shouts, looking all too thrilled, “ _Truth serum_?!”

Barry shoots him a glare, sitting up to face him fully. 

"Yes." Barry replies automatically, the serum stopping his first urge to make a snarky comment. Hal grins even bigger. 

"It _makes_ you tell the truth? Only the truth, and nothin’ but the truth?”

"Yes,” Barry replies, rolling his eyes, “I can’t even be _sarcastic_. I tried. It’s just the straight truth.”

He wants to kick himself. He should have known telling the League, or at least telling _Hal_ , was a bad idea. Hal’s grin hasn’t left his face, and Barry can only feel the knot in his stomach grow. He should have locked the door. He can only hope the tests were skewed, that the serum will wear off in the next two minutes.

Hal walks up to him, and takes a seat on the bed opposite of the one Barry’s on.

"You know what this means right?" he asks.

Barry sighs.

"Yeah.”

Hal claps his hands and rubs them together; lets a thoughtful expression take over his face. This only makes Barry’s anxiety spike.

"How long will it last for?"

"J'onn said it’ll take a half hour for me. Judging by when I was injected, I think I have to wait another five to fifteen minutes. I’m not sure of the exact time of injection, and everything else I’ve been dosed with kind of faded out of my system rather than cutting off abruptly, so it’s hard to tell how much time is left exactly.”

Hal nods, looking less like he was actually listening and more like he’s very amused at the amount of information Barry just freely gave up to him.

"So what you’re saying is I gotta get the juicy questions in early.” He says and since there’s no real true answer to that, Barry’s brain decides to let him keep quiet. Hal is thinking again, tapping a finger against his chin. His face lights up suddenly, and he points the finger towards Barry, a devious smirk forming on his lips.

“Ever jerked it thinking about one of the Leaguers?"

"Yes." Barry says quickly, forcing his mouth to shut hoping his brain doesn’t make him elaborate any more than that. He doesn’t know what triggers the word vomit, only that sometimes he can stop at a quick yes-or-no, and other times it’s like he won’t stop talking until he can’t breathe anymore. He can only hope Hal doesn't try to pry too much into certain things, namely what Barry just admitted to. Knowing Hal though, that’s exactly what he’ll do. 

And he does, laughing all the way, glee painting every part of his face.

"Oh yeah?" he cackles, "Let's play the guessing game then! Clark?"

"No."

"Arthur?"

"No."

"Batman?"

"N-No." He stutters on that one. And of course this triggers the word vomit. It’s true he’s never exactly jerked off to Batman, but his brain wants him to divulge on that one mission. The one where he was dosed with the aphrodisiac and – 

He shakes his head to clear it. He can feel the words on his tongue, and he strains against the urge to let them out. His foot starts shaking, almost vibrating, and Hal is gives him a strange look, one eyebrow cocked. 

“Whatever you’re going to say, I don’t want to hear it.” He says. Barry nods and covers his mouth, and that helps a bit, but the words still want to come out. Hal decides to move on with his guessing game and Barry’s grateful.

Sort of.

"What about the Princess?"

"Yes," Barry squeaks, the blush on his face deepening. He’s mortified, but at least his brain decided to leave the Batman thing alone. Hal laughs again, a knowing look in his eyes. 

"Yeah, yeah, big surprise," he says, then adds nonchalantly, "Me too."

"I think most of the planet has, even accounting for sexuality," Barry blurts out, "She's Wonder Woman! Plus she's incredibly smart and beautiful. I don’t know if you two have ever had any one-on-one time together, but she’s pretty funny, and she has amazing stories.” He stops himself, finding it to be a bit easier this time, and rubs his hand over his eyes, “Listen. Yes, I’ve thought about her like that, but I’m not proud of it!”

He looks up at Hal, and he looks stunned at Barry’s extensive confession. Barry's face flushes a deep red and he avoids eye contact. He feels like his head might explode with all the blood that’s been rushing to it.

“Please, don’t tell her I said all of that.” He pleads quietly. Hal nods, crossing his arms over his chest, looking a little put out. 

"Jeez Bar," Hal mutters, "What are you in love with her or something?"

"NO!" Barry yelps, "no, god. Just....you know, she's..."

"Wonder Woman," Hal finishes.

"Wonder Woman," Barry agrees.

"I gotcha." Hal winks at him, straightening up to his previous position on the bed, swallowing a little hard, "Woulda felt pretty bad for that Patty girl you've been seeing. Who would  
want to compete with the Amazon Princess, right?"

"Haha, yeah," Barry agrees, awkwardly, "Not much of a competition."

He pauses after that, eyes widening, realizing what he just said. Realizing that’s his genuine feeling on that matter, and puts his head in his hands once again.

"Wow, harsh dude," Hal says sounding almost surprised, "Speaking of Patty...why didn't you tell me about her? We're supposed to be best buds, man."

Barry shrugs. He’s able to pause before answering this time, which he figures means the serum must be wearing off. Unfortunately, the truth doesn't stop spilling out just yet.

"I don't like the way you are around my girlfriends, Hal. You can be really disrespectful, flirting with them in front of me. Best friends don't do that," he explains and Hal has enough sense to look guilty at that, mumbles a quiet ‘sorry’. Barry ignores it and continues.

"And it makes me feel like crap, you know, when they start up with it too. Like…like both of you forget that I’m there…like I don’t really matter," he explains. Shrugging, he clears his throat of the knot that formed in it at that confession. Hal has his head bowed to the floor, and he’s frowning. Barry can help but feel a little bad, but really, he explained before that he didn’t like the flirting. And if Hal didn’t want to know, he shouldn’t have asked. 

He feels more words form in his mouth, and he wishes this whole ordeal would be over.

“And I guess I should tell you, it didn’t work out with Patty. I knew it wouldn’t. I feel horrible about it, too. Leading her on like that. I thought I could really love her. I mean, she's wonderful. She's pretty, intelligent, we have a lot in common, and…I mean we’re still friends. She just…wasn’t what I really wanted and I couldn’t let it continue. It’s like Iris. I started feeling the same way about her, but then I realized I’d just be doing the same thing, and I’m just…I just have to figure some things out I guess.” 

He purses his lips and nods to himself. He’s pretty impressed at how much he was able to talk circles about his romantic situation to keep himself from revealing the most important part of why he was having trouble. He’s thinking this is probably because the serum is at its end, and that he can probably just keep rambling on aimlessly for the next couple minutes before it’s all out of his system. 

“I still think about them both a lot, but not in that way really anymore,” he says, “Well…not as much as I think about you—“ he slaps a hand over his mouth. He’s _such_ an idiot.

Barry looks over to Hal, hoping he didn’t catch that last word, but he did. It’s clear in his expression; brown eyes wide, mouth slightly parted in shock. 

Barry’s heart sinks. 

**_Why?_** He thinks to himself, _Why did you think you could talk your way through this without slipping up?_

“Hal, I -- I’m sorry. I don’t—“

"What--” Hal cuts him off, getting up off the bed, “What did you say?”

“I said I’m sorry.”

Hal shakes his head, “No, before. You said you think about— “

"I think about you a lot." Barry finishes for him, feeling defeated. He says it half because of the serum, half because there’s no point in hiding from him now. Hal still looks a bit stunned, but his eyes haven’t left Barry’s yet. And he hasn’t left the room yet. Barry hopes that’s a good thing. 

"You mean like…” Hal asks, making a lewd gesture with his hands. Barry can’t help but let out a small chuckle despite his anguish. He wants to be surprised that Hal would go _there_ right away, but this is Hal.

"N-Yes,” Barry admits, sighing. Again he feels more of his control coming back, but it’s not enough just yet, “Yeah, I do. But that's only some of the time."

"What about the rest of the time?” Hal asks, stepping closer to Barry’s bed, “What do you think about?" 

Barry sighs, he feels the word-vomit coming again, but he doesn’t try to stop it this time. 

"Just…you and me,” he says, shrugging, “When I run over to Coast and we get In-N-Out and hang out at the air field at night. Or when you get home to Earth from Oa and you come straight to my couch.” He pauses, thinking about why he’s letting himself go on like this. He knows he has enough control to at least stop himself talking, but he continues anyway. He takes one look at Hal, and it spurs him into revealing deeper secrets. Things he told himself to let go of, to bury deep down inside himself until he forgets them.

“I think about laying down with you sometimes, when I come home and see you there. Or inviting you to come sleep with me in my bed. I think about your hair, and when the sun shines in your eyes and I can see the gold in them.” He can feel a blush heat his face at how sappy he can be, but it’s all true, so he swallows his pride and continues.

“Kissing you. I think about that a lot. Like too much, actually. I almost contaminated a blood sample I was testing at work once because I was thinking about it. I just...I looked at this picture I have of you on my phone from…You remember when I came to visit you in Coast and we took that day trip with Carol to the beach? And you had just got that undercut? You looked really, really good and I just...I wanted to grab you right there and kiss you so, _so_ mu--mmph!"

Hal doesn’t let him finish, surging forward, grabbing Barry by the back of the neck and pressing their lips together. Barry gasps against him, and Hal takes the chance to lick into his mouth. Barry makes a small noise into the kiss, and Hal strengthens his grip on him, moving his hand up into Barry’s hair. His other hand moving to grab Barry’s thigh.

And Barry is a bit confused, and excited, and turned on all at once. He’s flustered and he doesn’t know what to do with his hands or his tongue. He’s annoyed with himself because he knows he’s a better kisser than this, but the whole situations got him acting like a twelve year old getting their first kiss. So he pulls away, looking Hal in the eyes, and sees the joy and desperation in them. Hal opens his mouth to say something to him, but Barry quiets him.

“Give me a second,” he says a little breathless, “This is a little overwhelming and I’m kind of confused.”

Hal huffs out a laugh at that, bowing his head. Barry feels the hand in his hair loosen a bit, the fingers lightly petting his scalp, but it doesn’t move away. Hal looks back up at him, a smile tugging at his reddened lips, eyes crinkling at the edges. His face says enough about what just happened that Barry’s confident that Hal wanted that just as much as him.  
That it wasn’t just a spur of the moment experiment.

Barry feels his own lips turn up in a grin. He moves his hands to rest on Hal’s hips, lightly at first, then gripping hard, pulling him closer. They kiss again, softer and gentler this time. When Hal pulls away, Barry can’t help but try to follow, brushing their noses together, and resting his forehead against Hal’s when they meet again.

“I’ve wanted to do that for a while now,” Hal admits quietly, and it’s odd to see this side of him. Barry decides pretty quickly that he can get used to it.

“Oh yeah? And here I thought you just felt bad for me.” He replies coyly. Hal raises an eyebrow at him, unimpressed. 

“I guess the serum’s worn off then.”

“I guess so,” Barry grins, “There’s really only one way to find out. Ask me something.”

Hal thinks a moment and that devious smirk returns, as does that anxious feeling Barry thought left him when they kissed.

“What happened with Batman?”

Barry’s eyes widen at that and his face flushes yet again. Hal cocks his eyebrow, looking decidedly curious.

“Nothing!” Barry asserts pushing Hal away and getting up. He bee-lines towards the door, but Hal is following him close behind, and grabs him before he can leave. He turns Barry to face him and holds him in place. The sly grin is back, but it’s not as gleeful as it was, and Barry feels a little guilty. 

“Nothing happened with Batman.” He says again, this time as more of an assurance than anything else. Hal nods, bringing him closer.

“OK, Bar.”

“ _Nothing._ ” 

Hal’s smile softens, “It’s OK,” 

And he keeps tugging Barry closer, and Barry knows they’ll have to discuss this somewhere down the line because he knows Hal. He knows how much it’ll bother him, but for now he can’t bring himself to care too much. There’s something unmistakably fond in the way Hal looks at him now, and they’re kissing again. 

And Barry taps into the Speed Force just a bit, just to stretch this moment out, and he finds that there might be a better reason than metabolism to love his powers.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> I had a little trouble getting their voices down, so if anyone has any tips for this, let me know! As well, any constructive criticism about my writing in general (like pacing, too many commas, etc) is welcome. I haven't written a fic in _years_ , so I'm a little rusty.


End file.
